The town of Eton formed a local government district in Buckinghamshire, England from 1849 to 1974. It was administered as a local board district from 1849 to 1894, and as an urban district from 1894 to 1974.

History

Part of the parish of Eton was declared to be a local board district on 6 October 1849. The defined area of the local board was drawn relatively tightly around the built-up area of the town, essentially just covering the High Street area.

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and its playing fields were initially excluded from the local board district, as were the more rural parts of the parish of Eton. The Eton Local Board held its first meeting on 30 November 1849, when John Cleave was appointed the first chairman of the board. An attempt to enlarge the local board district in 1851 so as to include Eton College was defeated by the college. A few years later another attempt to bring the college within the local board district was made, with an inquiry being held in December 1867. The college did not oppose the expansion of the district on that occasion, and so the district was enlarged in 1868 to include the college and its grounds. Under the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

, local board districts became urban districts with effect from 31 December 1894. The act also specified that parishes could not straddle urban and rural districts, and so the parts of the parish of Eton outside the local board district became a separate parish called

Eton Wick Eton Wick is a village in Berkshire, England (historically Buckinghamshire), on the River Thames in the civil parish of Eton, close to the historic towns of Windsor and Eton, Slough and Dorney Lake, the rowing venue for the 2012 Summer Olympi ...

, which was included in the

Eton Rural District Eton Rural District was a rural district in the administrative county of Buckinghamshire, England, covering an area in the south-east of the county. It was named after but did not contain Eton, which was an urban district. History The dist ...

. Eton Urban District Council held its first meeting on 3 January 1895, when Edward Compton Austen-Leigh was appointed the first chairman of the council. He had been the last chairman of the local board. In 1934 the parish of

was abolished and absorbed into the parish and urban district of Eton. The parish of Boveney was abolished at the same time, with its former area being split between Eton and

Dorney Dorney is a village and civil parish in the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England, bordering on the River Thames to the west and south, and bisected by the Jubilee River. In 2011 it had a population of 752. It is west of neighbouring ...

Premises

Gothic building on Eton High Street - geograph

For its first forty years the Eton Local Board met at various rented rooms in the town. In 1890 a new building was erected at 138 High Street by the Baldwin's Bridge Trust, a chairty with responsibility for maintaining the adjoining bridge over the stream called Barnes Pool. The building at 138 High Street was designed to serve both as offices for the trust itself and to provide offices and a council chamber for Eton Local Board. The board held its first meeting in the new building on 1 January 1891. The urban district council continued to be based at 138 High Street until the late 1950s, when it moved to 102 High Street, which had originally been built by the council in 1904 as the town's fire station.

Abolition

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 Eton Urban District was disbanded and together with parts of

was transferred to Berkshire and combined with adjacent urban districts to form

Windsor and Maidenhead The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is named after both the towns of Maidenhead and Windsor, the borough also covers the nearby towns of Ascot and Eton. It is home to Windsor ...

District. A

successor parish Successor parishes are civil parishes with a parish council, created in England in 1974. They replaced, with the same boundaries, a selected group of urban districts and municipal boroughs: a total of 300 successor parishes were formed from the ...

was created for the town, with its council taking the name Eton Town Council, which continues to be based at the urban district council's old offices at 102 High Street.

References

{{History of local government districts in Buckinghamshire Districts of England created by the Local Government Act 1894 Districts of England abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 History of Buckinghamshire Local government in Buckinghamshire Urban districts of England